Languages
Although individual settings among the Misremembered Realms can vary wildly, certain multiversal constants hold firm. Curiously, one of these constants is language. Certain languages have extraplanar origins, while others are entwined with the essence of a race's being, infused into them during their creation by a given plane's Gods. Still other languages, such as Celestial and Infernal, help to govern the rules of the Multiverse itself. The following is a list of languages and their typical usage and general history throughout most of the realms. Should any realm's equivalent language deviate sufficiently from these patterns, it will likely be defined as a different language entirely. Local Not a language in itself, most humans primarily speak a language forged by their history in the region rather than their race retaining the rules of an ancient language bestowed to them by the gods. Each realm would thus have several regional languages that the local humans speak but most foreigners or non humans wouldn't. Common Originally based on the human language, Common evolved into a creole of several languages used by the older races humans interacted with and gradually grew to be the popular language of trade as a result. Most civilized races now speak Common as well as their own tongue, and it's not unlikely to find speakers even among the monstrous humanoids who live along the fringes of society. Alphabet: Common Dwarven Spoken primarily by dwarves and those who interact with them, Dwarven is an ancient, strictly structured language that has changed very little since it's first appearance. Treasure hunters and others who explore dungeons and ruins often pick up Dwarven for this reason, as the living language resembles that of its ancient counterpart so closely. Alphabet: Dwarven Elven The language of the elves, Elven is spoken by all Elvenkind, and is as important to them as their bloodline and history. It is a flowing, beautiful language, with many different synonyms for words used to communicate the speaker's emotional state; when angered, an Elven speaker's words become sharp, curt and to the point, while Elven love poems are flowing sagas of colorful language that can go on seemingly forever. Alphabet: Elven Gnome When Gnomes first appeared in the world, they brought with them the Sylvan language spoken by most residents of the feywild. However, upon hearing the musical sounds of the elves and reading the rigid runes of the dwarves, many set off across the world in search of new, more exotic languages to help inspire their own. After many generations, migrations and chance encounters between foreign tribes and gnomish individuals, the gnomish language was formed. A chaotic and ever adapting language, Gnome is a motley creole of the most exciting parts of other languages decided upon by the ancient gnomes who first discovered them. Colloquially referred to as “Uncommon,” Gnome rejects the words and language structure of the most regularly interacted with races, deeming them “boring” after so much exposure, but contains almost wholecloth the writing style, linguistic patterns and lexicon of rare, exotic languages, allowing Gnome speakers the uncanny ability to communicate with wildly disparate peoples almost flawlessly. Alphabet: Gnome Halfling Also called Halftongue or Gutterspeak, the halfling language serves a double purpose. While it remains the racial language of the halfling people, their constant association with the fringes of human societies has led to their language being picked up by rogues and criminals as a sort of lower class dialect that's half slang, half code. It often proves useful since nobles, guards and those higher up in society seldom learn the language, typically considering such peoples beneath them. Alphabet: Halfling Goblin A brutal, guttural language, it is primarily used among goblin kind. However, some military scholars pick up the language due to the sophistication of hobgoblin siege engines, training manuals and military tactics and the lack of common translation of such works. This has also led to the practice of Goblin being used as a battlefield language, even among civilized races, as it's simple, clear sounding syllables are difficult to confuse even on a noisy battlefield. Alphabet: Goblin Giant The language of Ogres, Trolls, Cyclopes and other giants, Giant is an ancient language descended from the common ancestors of these races, tremendous beings who stood against the Gods. As their ancestors fell to the Gods and their surviving bloodlines scattered and degenerated, so too did the language deteriorate across millennia. What once was the complex language of the Titans, Jotuns and Nephilim of the primordial world devolved into regional dialects of broken, simple phrases made to suit the needs of their monstrous, simple descendants. Alphabet: Primordial Orcish The Orcish language is effectively a simplistic pidgin of Goblin, Giant and Abyssal. Thus, those who speak it are able to muddle their way through simple conversation with those fluent in those languages. However, Orcish has no actual written form, and thus those who speak only Orcish cannot read Abyssal, Giant or Goblin writing despite effectively speaking those languages. Alphabet: None Sylvan Spoken by magical woodland creatures such as centaurs, satyrs, unicorns, treants and the fey, Sylvan is the language of the primal forest and the Feywild. It's a secondary language for many forest dwelling peoples, typically elves, and some members of gnomish communities retain the knowledge of their ancestral tongue. Alphabet: Sylvan Draconic The language of dragons and kobolds, Draconic serves as a language of magic as well. Many wizards find the language useful for recording the ingredients and rituals involved with spellcasting because of the written structure, and Draconic power words are the most commonly invoked by spellcasters. Alphabet: Draconic Primordial The language of primordial chaos, it is most often spoken by those who exists on or regularly interact with the elemental planes. However, it is also the language used by the ancient giants who ruled over the primordial world before the coming of the gods, as well as many elemental beings, some of whom still remember such a world. Alphabet: Primordial Abyssal Echoing throughout The Abyss, this is the language of demons and the unscrupulous summoners of such entities. A fundamentally evil language, abyssal is generally reserved for those who would willingly commit violent or evil acts or those who dedicate their existence to fighting demons; or both, as is the case with devils. Alphabet: Abyssal Infernal Known as the language of Hell, Infernal is naturally spoken by devils. However, it also serves as the cosmic language of law and order. The primary plane of law, Mechanus, generally lacks a spoken language. Most inhabitants are forms of hive mind and receive communication telepathically. However, when communicating with outsiders, infernal is the spoken tongue. It is also used in many sufficiently developed nations' legal proceedings, being a very precise language. Alphabet: Infernal Celestial The language of heaven, it is spoken by Angels and other good outsiders, as well as the religiously devout. Many religious writings use Celestial runes, which formed the basis for the runes used by the world’s oldest race, the dwarves. While the alphabet should technically be known as Celestial, the strong association of these runes with Dwarven society and the relative rarity of Celestial runes left by divine or outsider sources has resulted in Dwarven runes being the accepted naming convention among scholars. Alphabet: Dwarven Aquan The Tongue of the Sea, Aquan is spoken by merfolk and tritons as well as all manner of sea dwelling creatures, as well as many sailors and maritime civilizations. Most underwater peoples do not have a tradition of writing, and thus Aquan lacks a written form. Alphabet: None Aklo The language of madness and the void, it is spoken by aboleths, illithids, madmen, derro, gillmen and other aberrations and evil fey who have twisted, atypical views of reality. Some claim reading or hearing the language can harm one's sanity in and of itself, and many times of forbidden knowledge are penned in its alien script. Alphabet: Aklo Undercommon Also referred to as Deep or Deep Speech, Undercommon is similar in practice to common, bridging language barriers between the races of the underdark. Unlike Common, there was no original language that evolved to form the base of undercommon, and it's resulted in a much more patchwork amalgamation of wildly different languages forming a pidgin that's seldom used outside of chance encounters, diplomatic relations or formal trade between underdark nations. Still, it's known commonly enough that one can reliably work their way through conversation with the language almost anywhere in the underdark. Secret Languages Certain languages cannot be learned by normal means, requiring specific instruction or circumstances to be met before becoming fluent. Druidic The secret language of Druids is expressly forbidden to be taught to outsiders. This ban has held in place for millennia, seemingly enforced by the divine laws of the multiverse, as even when outsiders have infiltrated druidic circles to learn their secrets, they became unwilling or unable to teach others the secrets of their tongue. Alphabet: Sylvan Drow Sign Language Drow Sign Language is a secret language of signals used by the Drow to communicate silently to eachother. While it is not expressly forbidden to be taught to outsiders, the typical attitude towards foreigners prominent within Drow society generally precludes anyone from being taught the signals. Alphabet: N/A Gutterscratch Gutterscratch is a system of seemingly innocuous markings, notches and scratches that criminals and vagabonds use to communicate information about towns, streets, shops or individual homes to each other. This language is only secret insofar as there is no formal method of receiving an education in Gutterscratch; the most common users are those who grew up on the streets, and can speak Guttertongue but cannot read Halfling script. Alphabet: Gutterscratch